Terms and Definitions
The definition of habitat.
Natural environment where an organism lives.
How low food and a high amount of predators would affect a population
Decreases the population
The primary reason that wildebeests migrate throughout the Serengeti
To find food
The kind of ecosystem that the Serengeti is
Savanna or Grasslands/Plains
What always goes on the Y-axis of what we are graphing
The thing that we are measuring (population in this case)
The definition of limiting factor.
Anything that limits the growth of a population of animals.
How poachers might affect a population
Decrease the population because of hunting
This thing triggers the wildebeests to migrate and lets them know where their food is.
Rainfall
Lions and hyenas
This measurement always goes on the bottom (X-axis) of a graph
Time (or years, months, etc)
The definition of carrying capacity.
The amount of an animal a certain area can sustainably support throughout their lifecycle.
How a large amount of predators might affect a population.
Decrease the population because they hunt the prey animals.
One of the reasons for why wildebeests migrate back to the southern part of the Serengeti during certain parts of the year
To give birth in a low-predator environment
What you would need to know to figure out the carrying capacity of an area.
Limiting factors (food, water, predators, climate, human interaction, space) and what the animal requires
This is what we call animals that only eat meat
A carnivore
The definition of biomass.
Organic material
How high levels of rainfall might affect a population.
The rainfall could make the grass and be nutritious, which would help the population grow.
OR
The rainfall could flood the bodies of water around the population and drown them or the grass, leading to population decline.
A natural disaster in the northern part of the Serengeti that would cause the wildebeest to migrate
Flooding
The animal that wildebeests have to worry about when crossing the Mara River
Crocodiles
This is the largest organ in the human body
Your skin
The definition of ecology
The study of interactions between organisms and their environment
How a hotter than usual climate might affect a population.
It could cause the animals to overheat and die, cause droughts, or lead to wildfires in the area.
A natural disaster in the western part of the Serengeti that would cause the wildebeest herd to migrate
Wildfires
What are the two rivers that run through the Serengeti?
The Mara river and Grumeti River
This was the name of the second scientist that we watched a video on who went up in airplanes to count the numbers of the wildebeest herds.
Dr. Tony Sinclair